reading and writing about why we work

11/20/2014

Forever Independent

Office Space's characters Peter and Joanna give their viewers a scene they can relate to when they are having lunch together for the first time. This scene reflects most of our perspectives on why we work. Peter tells Joanna he decided not to go to work that day and had no intention to return to a work place he absolutely hated. Not only did he not plan to return, he had no desire to even look for another job; Talk about worst first impression to give a pretty young lady. Joanna scoffs and clearly finds this ludicrous because she then tells him, "Well what are you going to do? How are you going to pay your bills?" Peter responds carelessly with, "I don’t know." Joanna is a great representation of most of us today with the example being that we may not like our jobs but, we cope with where we can maintain employed because we need to be able to provide for ourselves. This scene very well reminded me of my thoughts on "The Drug Dealer" we read about in our GiG book. This kid thinks he's living the life because he can manage buying himself things without asking his parents. But, this job of his is far fetched from being an actual job. Whether it be marijuana or cocaine, that he is selling, they are both illegal. The day will come when he realizes he can not make an actual living off of this "job" because he either has to face time in jail/prison or getting an actual job. There comes a time in every persons life where they can no longer live off of their parents money. Not everyone is born into a family of wealth and not everyone will marry the rich. So why depend on dirty money or other peoples money? Imagine someone asking you what you do for a living and you can not even answer the question because you do not earn your money or because the way you recieve money is illegal and you can not disclose that information...that is an embarrassment. You should be able to proudly say what it is that you do and if you are working somewhere that you absolutely despise you should still carry pride in the fact that you can make it out in the world independently providing yourself with wants and needs. We must always remember that some people are not fortunate enough to be employed.